Manufacture of large titanium parts is unduly expensive because conventional techniques require the machining (milling) of thick blanks. This technique is expensive. The thick blanks must be specially produced at the titanium foundry. The machining is extraordinary, both in time, the volume of waste chips, and the ratio of starting material to finished part. Often more than 90% of the stock blank will be removed in the machining step. The cost of titanium parts would be greatly reduced if the raw material cost, the machining time, the machining chip waste would be reduced. Attempts to form thick titanium blanks prior to machining, however, have been unsuccessful. The present invention permits the forming of thick titanium plate without cracking using controlled strain rates similar to superplastic forming.